Florida Retirement System Changes Nixed

Legislators defeated an amendment that largely matched a bill already passed by the Florida House of Representatives and would have closed the state’s pension plan for new public employees, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. As a result, no changes will be made to the FRS, which covers more than 623,000 teachers, state workers, county employees, law-enforcement officers and others who work for the state government.

The House plan would have closed the traditional pension plan to all new employees.

The Democrat reported that State Senator Wilton Simpson had a bill of his own ready for full Senate action after committee approval that would have closed the pension plan only to elected officers and senior management, a group that represents fewer than 10,000 people in the FRS. That bill was never heard by the full Senate.

Instead, Simpson filed amendments that he proposed to swap out for the House bill, which also would have closed the pension to all new employees, but a year later than the House version, on January 1, 2015.

“Let’s do the study we know we need to do and come back next year to make a true policy-driven decision,” said Senator Jeremy Ring, according to the news report.